Liquor treating apparatus



Dec. 8, 1942. H. F. ENTWISTLE ETAL 2,304,248

LIQUOR TREATING APPARATUS Filed Jan. 6. 1940 \I ll II a q) N a U l k l INVENTORS H. F. Ew'rW/s TLE H. L. HUSSON A T TORNEV Patented Dec. 8, 1942 Harold F. Entwis'tle, Nutley, and Harry L. Husson,

assignors to Western Electric Company, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application January 6, 1940, Serial No. 312,671

4 Claims.

This invention relates to a liquor treating apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus for the treatment of a liquor contaminated with particles of impurities to clarify the same;

In various kinds of metal forming and metal cutting machines, a fluid is kept continually flowin point where the work is being done for the double purpose of carrying away heat generated in the process and of lubricating the tool. Thus in some kinds of wire drawing appa ratus, there may be a die through which a rod or wire is being drawn to reduce its diameter, or there may be a bank of several suchdies arranged for convenience in a close group. A stream of wire drawing compound is kept flowing continually over the die or group of .dies, partly to lubricate the dies and work and partly to carry away the heat generated in the dies and work. The compound is ordinarily an emulsion of some suitable grease, e. g. tallow or tallow oil, in water, with an emulsifying agent, e. g. soap. The liquid heated by contact with the dies and work and contaminated with metal particles of grease broken out of the emulsion, is caught in a pan or suitable receptacle, and treated to be re-circulated for use again. Such treatment involves heat tempering the liquor to reduce its temperature to an optimum value for re-use, and removal of the suspended impurities.

An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for clarifying liquors of the general nature described, which will require a minimum of attendance in practice and will operate efiiciently and reliably and substantially without superintendence to handle a minimum total amount of liquor at a high rate of circulation.

With the above and other objects in View, the invention may be embodied in an apparatus for clarifying a liquid and comprising a liquid storage and settling tank having means to deliver raw liquid to a body of liquid therein partly below and partly above the level of the body of liquid and without causing turbulence thereof, and having a vertical partial wall or weir therein to provide a sludge free outlet compartment.

Other objects and features of the invention will appear from the following detailed description of one embodiment thereof in connection with the accompanying drawing in which the same reference numerals are applied to identical parts in the several figures, and in which Fig. 1 is a View in side elevation, with portions dust and with 'broken away, of an apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof; and

Fig. 3 is a left hand end view of the tank.

The apparatus herein disclosed as illustrative of and embodying the invention may be thought of as particularly adapted to receive and clarify for re-use drawing compound from a copper wire drawing machine, or a plurality of such; In one particular instance of the kind, the system contained at any given time about two thousand five hundred gallons altogether of the liquor, which was clarified and circulated at about five hundred gallons per minute. The liquor was water with about 4% of solids, dispersed as emulsion or dissolved'therein, which solids'comprised about 50% tallow, 20% rape-seed oil and 30% soap. In the course of three months of operation, about five thousand nine hundred pounds of sludge were removed from the circulated liquor, which sludge contained about 40%" of copper and copper oxide in a finely divided state, the balance being chiefly grease broken out. ofthe emulsion. g y Although for clarity of understanding, the apparatus disclosed is considered as applied to the clarifying of the particular liquor described, drawn from and returned to machines for drawing wire, the exact nature of the liquor or of the machines is no part of the invention, as liquors requiring the same general treatment are used in many arts. Hence the machines from which the liquor comes and to Whichit is returned are not shown or specifically described.

Contaminated and overheated liquor to be clarified and tempered comes to the apparatus disclosed, through a valve 22. The valve 22 communicates with a liquor distributor 24 extending into a clarifier tank 25, near the top and near one end of the tank. The tank 25, generally speaking, is a wholly enclosed parallelepiped of sheet metal or other suitablematerial. At the other side of the tank, a vertical wall or weir 26 rises from the fioor of the tank to the level of the axis chamber 28, which have free communication with each other over the weir 26. A vertical battle or inverted weir 29 extends down from the roof of the tank into the settling chamber 21, below the level of the top of the weir and parallel to and spaced a small distance from the Weir. A clean out door is provided in any convenient outer Wall of the tank as here indicated at 30. One or more long and wide slot 34 is formed a length of pipe extending horizontally through opposite walls of the settling chamber 21. One end communicates with the valve 22 and the other end is closed. A plurality of small longitudinal slots 33 is formed in a line along the bottom of the distributor, and a single relatively longitudinally along the top of the distributor. Preferably the slots est at the inlet end of the distributor and widen:- ing toward the other end. In some instances liquor may be fed into both ends of the distributor, in which case. the slots 33 will preferably be narrowest at the ends and will widen toward the center. g

The, tank and its various parts and appurtenances are preferably so dimensioned and arranged that the normal level of liquor in the tank, while the apparatus is operating, will lie preferably at or a trifle above the level of the axis of the distributor. Liquor is fed through the supply valve 22 to the distributor under such head or pressure as is necessary to keep the distributor full and overflowingover. the edges .of the slot 34. The liquor rlsesthrough the slot 3.4. and overflows gently and quietly down over the curved outer slopes of the top half of the distributor. Since this liquor enters the main body of liquor with only the kinetic energy derived from falling from the edgev of the slot 34 to the surface of the main body, it enters the main body, or rather floats out upon it, substantially without possessing. or creating any turbulence. The liquor passing through the slots 33 also enters the body of liquor in the tank under the same small head and hence also substantially without having or creating turbulence.

In the particular apparatus in mind it. takes liquor delivered from the distributor fromthree to five minutes to reach the re-oirculation pump at the opposite edge ofthe tank, and it is found that, in the case of the particular liquor in mind, about one minute is required for the sludge to settle. Hence by the time the liquor reaches and passes over the top edge of the weir 26 into the pump intake chamber 28, its burden of solid matter will have settled too far below the top of the weir to be carried up over it into the chamber 28. A certain small fraction of the sludge may contain no metal detritus and may be light enough therefor to float and form a scum on the surface. The inverted weir or baille 29 prevents this scum from being drawn to and passing over the weir 26 into the chamber 28.

Near the bottom of one outer wall of the cham- 33 are of graduated width, as shown, narrowber 28 an outlet 35 from which the clarified liquor may be drawn from the chamber 28 for reuse, is located.

The apparatus disclosed and described is illustrative and may be modified and varied in many ways without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in and limited solely by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In an apparatus for treating a liquor, a tank for settling, a weir in the tank, and a pipe extending horizontally into the tank and having its axis level with the top of the weir and formed with a plurality of small liquor outlet apertures along the bottom thereof and with a large liquor outlet aperture along the top thereof.

2. Apparatus to treat liquor and comprising a. container for liquor, and means to maintain a constant surface level of liquor in the container, in combination with means to supply liquor to the volume of liquor in the container with minimum creation of turbulence therein, the said last mentioned means including a hollow body member positioned horizontally within the container and partly above and partly below the constant surface level of the liquor'in the'cone tainer and formed with an inlet aperture and with an outlet aperture above the said level and adjacent to the top of the body and withan outlet aperture below the said level.

3. Apparatus to treat liquor and comprising a container for liquor, and means to maintain a constant surface level ofliquor in the container, in combination with means to supply liquor to the volume of liquor in the container with mini: mum creation of turbulence therein, the said last mentioned means including a hollow body mem-. ber positioned horizontally within thecontainer and partly above and partly below the constant surface level of the liquor in the container and formed with an inlet aperture and with a rela tively large outlet aperture above the said level and adjacent to the top of the body and with a plurality of relatively small outlet apertures below the said level.

4. Apparatus to treat liquor and comprisinga container for liquor, and meansto maintaina constant surface level of liquor in the container; in combination with means to supply liquor to the volume of liquor in the container with mini mum creation of turbulence therein, the said last mentioned means including a hollow body member positioned horizontally within the container and partly above and partly below the constant surface level of the liquor in the container and formed with an inlet aperture and with a relatively large outlet aperture above the said level and adjacent to the top of the body and with a plurality of relatively small outlet apertures below the said level, the outer surface of the body sloping outwardly and downwardly from the outlet aperture above the said surface level'to the said level. r HAROLD F. ENTWISTLE. HARRY L. HUSSON. 

